Newsletter

Project DeRenne: Find a Plan B

FOR FIVE years, Savannah officials and countless others have worked on a plan to improve the traffic flow on DeRenne Avenue, which approaches near-gridlock during the morning and afternoon rush hours.

Tuesday night, about 100 people showed up at Savannah Tech to see an updated plan. Briefly, it looks pretty good, except for a proposed median on the eastern end that would block access to some businesses.

But it’s time for a reality check. No one should get their hopes up about getting Project DeRenne up and running anytime soon.

What’s being proposed is a Cadillac fix — roughly $80 million to build a flyover and a traffic circle outside one of Hunter Army Airfield’s gates and to make other improvements.

Unfortunately, the city has a Chevrolet budget — about $18 million in sales tax revenue in the bank.

City officials said Tuesday that they hope the state and federal governments will eventually kick in the remaining $62 million. But for the foreseeable future, that’s unrealistic.

City Hall should remove any rose-colored glasses and observe reality. The feds are furloughing air traffic controllers because of the Obama sequestration. There’s no resolution of the deficit-spending crisis in sight.

The state, meanwhile, has been squeezing nickels on transportation projects, except for critical needs like Savannah harbor deepening that benefit Georgia’s economy.

State officials gave voters in Chatham, Effingham, Bryan and surrounding counties the option of paying an extra sales tax to help pay for Project DeRenne, a heavily used route for commuters who live outside the city and work here. But voters shot down the proposed T-SPLOST with both barrels.

“In a perfect world, we would be hoping to start construction in five years,” said Susan Broker, director of Savannah’s Citizen Office, on Tuesday.

To put it bluntly, Project DeRenne is stuck in neutral.

That’s why it’s time to start talking about a Plan B for Project DeRenne. This traffic chokepoint isn’t going to fix itself.

What might a Plan B look like using the revenue the city has in hand? What will $18 million buy in the way of improvements? Will any of them be worth the expense?

Spending money to make sure traffic signals are timed for maximum efficiency is a legitimate expense. Perhaps there’s a way to redirect some of the commuters around the clogs at the Montgomery Street and White Bluff Road intersections on DeRenne without building a costly flyover. Or perhaps not.

But it makes sense to explore other options. Getting trapped in the pie-in-the-sky mode doesn’t solve anything. Also, the city must stay focused on what’s happening along DeRenne.

Pam Miller, president of the Kensington Park Community Association, expressed disappointment in a letter to the editor that her neighborhood was left in the dark about the new CVS being built at the corner of Abercorn and DeRenne. She claimed it doesn’t fit the agreed-to plan. If that’s the case, then City Hall dropped the ball.

Ms. Broker said that ultimately, the completion of Project DeRenne will come down to funding. That’s always been true.

But the ultimate truism — except in Washington — is that you can’t spend money you don’t have.

With T-SPLOST down the tubes, the city should look at the $18 million it has to make things better along DeRenne. That’s less than a quarter of what’s needed. But maybe it’s enough to make a difference.